Well, the 2023 holiday season is coming to a close, which means *sob* it’s time to start thinking about taking down the tree and decorations. This Saturday is January 6, which marks the 12th day of Christmas (or the Feast of the Epiphany as many Christian denominations know it as). That’s the timeline that my family used while I was growing up and I think it’s fair. You get to extend the season a little bit past New Years, but also don’t still have a Christmas tree and blow mold Santa up until St. Patrick’s Day.
When we talked about the artificial vs. real Christmas tree debate, some of you mentioned that you keep your trees up for a while after the holidays are over. I love that! According to a 2022 Home Decor Report from Opendoor, 84% said that they take their decorations down sometime in January, with 51% responding that they put them away on or around January 1. Today.com recently talked to some experts to get their thoughts on when it’s time to take your Christmas tree and decorations down. Their answers varied, ranging from religious traditions to practicality to personal preference.
New Year’s Day: “January 1st is that clear marker of time that the holidays are over and a new beginning is here,” Ariana Lovato, owner and principal designer at Honeycomb Home Design, tells TODAY.com. “Time to clean up the home, clear up the clutter and take a breath from the stress of the holidays.”
January 6: “Many people will…wait until January 6 as the final day to remove all holiday decor,” Lewis Puleo, vice president at Puleo International, the oldest artificial tree company in the country, tells TODAY.com. January 6 is known as the Epiphany, Little Christmas or Three Kings Day. From the perspective of religion tradition, it’s the day that the Magi (the Three Kings or the Wise Men) brought gifts to the infant Jesus, so it makes sense for many to mark this as the last day for the Christmas season. And as the song goes, there are indeed 12 days of Christmas, with the last being January 6.
Any time in January: According to the 2020 “Undeck the Halls” report by Neighbor, more than half of Americans won’t frown upon keeping decorations up past January 1. You might start to get the side-eye from your neighbors at a certain point, though: 31% said decorations should come down by January 15, while 33% extended the deadline to February 1.
When your tree says it’s time: If you have a real Christmas tree in your midst, it’s really up to the fir itself to decide when it comes down. And unfortunately, it might be sooner rather than later. If your tree is exhibiting any of the following signs, Carpenter says it might be time to take down your tree, no matter the date:
The needles are falling, either on their own or with the touch of your hand The limbs are stiff or droopy It smells musty rather than like citrus or pine The tree doesn’t seem to be taking in much or any water Don’t let any of this sway you from having a real tree, though. “With proper care, you could easily enjoy your tree from Thanksgiving through the New Year or Epiphany, because who doesn’t want to make the holidays last just a little bit longer,” Carpenter adds.
But really, take down your tree anytime you want: Provided you have an artificial tree — or maybe you just have a green thumb — you can leave your tree up for as long as you want. It’s your house, your rules. What’s more, the aforementioned Neighbor report found that 9% of respondents wouldn’t mind if you kept your decorations up all year. “The tree can be thought of as a transitional object/security blanket,” Amber Dunford, a design psychologist and the style director for Overstock, tells TODAY.com. “It’s a symbol of comfort for us, so it makes sense that people want to carry it with them throughout all seasons because Christmas can be such a magical time.”
I think most people generally keep their decorations up for a week or so after Christmas and/or New Years is over, but the time table for the tree may be different. For example, our neighbor took her tree down on December 27, but says she’s keeping the outside lights up through this weekend, if the weather allows. I’m curious to hear what everyone else does! We’ll enjoy our tree and decorations through the 6th and begin to take them down on the 7th. It’s helpful that it’s a weekend this year or else I’d probably use a weekday as an excuse to delay. It did take a while to put the outside lights up, though, so we just may be *that* house on the block that keeps them on juuust a few days longer. (Although Mr. Rosie will tell you differently, lol.)
I have a funny story about live trees telling you when it’s time to go! Every year, my sister and parents cut down their trees from a local farm. Two years ago, my sister noticed sometime before Christmas that there were little brown growths on her tree. She didn’t think too much of it until the day after Christmas, when those brown growths opened and out popped something like 150 baby praying mantises! My parents were there at the time and said it was a whole scene trying to get the “nice” ornaments off of the tree, get the tree outside, and catch all of the baby praying mantises. Needless to say, both groups examine their trees a lot more carefully now.
Photos credit: James Wheeler, Peter Chapin and Freestocks on Unsplash and Geoffrey Swaine / Avalon
We take them down whenever we feel like it. Last year, it was on New Year’s Day, this year, it will be this weekend, so1/6-1/7. Some years its MLK weekend. Whatever works for us on any given year.
We just moved to a cold climate with snow. I don’t know how I’ll get through the winter emotionally once we take our lights down. I want to leave them up all winter.
I put solar lights in outdoor trees and leave them up year round. That way my energy bill isn’t high and I can enjoy lights on late summer nights.
My son gave me a solar bird feeder for Christmas. Something about feeding the birds and having that light makes me very happy.
I leave my decorations with lights up until mid to late February because I like the uplift from them. I also have a lot of tea lights and two essential oil diffusers with lights that I used regularly for the boost. Do what you have got to do.
Usually I take my artificial tree down 1/6, but during the pandemic I kept it up all year. Just rotated the ornaments monthly depending on the season and other holidays. I may do that again this year, because I’m going through a divorce and I could use a little cheering up.
PRAYING MANTISES?? 😱 oh my goodness!
I’m planning to take the decor down this weekend. I have enjoyed having it up. But my kids are home for break still, we’re planning to have friends over tomorrow so we may end up taking everything down today. Or everything but the tree. We’ll see.
Baby praying mantises would freak me out. For whatever reason, we had a ton of praying mantis in our yard this summer for the first time. I don’t dislike spiders or really any other bugs, but praying mantises with their alien faces gross me out.
I usually take decorations down on the epiphany but my cat has decided this year to sleep in the tree during the day and my husband thinks it should be a year round cat tree.
I mentioned my conversion to Swiftie status, after baby girl girl began loving her and we went to her movie. So then I got them the Taylor Swift Golden Book and she grew up for awhile on a Christmas tree farm. Her job was removing praying mantis eggs. Ewww. Before that I never knew it was a potential issue.
p.s. I’m a January 6th person, for removing decorations. But, I love this neighborhood house that leaves their lights up into February. It makes me happy when I drive by.
Sweet mercy, I would have died if praying mantises had hatched out of my tree!!!! YIKES!!!!! This was the first year ever I went to an artificial tree. The biggest plus? Not schlepping water to the tree stand each day and wiping the sloshes off our new hardwood floor!
My Christmas decorations are taken down on 6th January, Nollaig na mBan (Women’s Christmas) here in Ireland.
a link if anyone is interested in Nollaig na mBan https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/0104/1103975-nollaig-na-mban-january-6th-ireland-roots-traditions-customs/
I just saw a social media post on this.
Thank you for sharing more info on it!
Yes, thanks Zapp. I loved that and listened to the audio, so I’d know the pronunciation. The whole bucket thing confused me. LOL. I’ll have to go reread it. I thought: “I put the bucket of water out and don’t use it? Then throw it out?” Or is it an excuse where the women still mop the floor, instead of the men?
Not before the 12th day of Christmas, Jan 6th. I grew up in Colombia and originally gifts were not exchanged until Jan 6th. However, after enough Americans moved there and introduced Santa Claus mania, gifts were exchanged on Christmas Eve or Christmas.
Grew up in Colombia too. Born in the mid 80s. For us, we’ve always celebrated Christmas on the 24th, or midnight going into the 25th, we do have “aguinaldo day” which is December 17th where gifts given amongst the family were opened, then Christmas decor comes off the next day after three kings day on January 6th.
Argentinian tradition too. Up on December 8th, down on January 6th.
I liked this, thanks so much Zapp. I take my tree down Jan. 6th, but this year I’m too sick to. Everyone I know is sick practically…Stay well folks, and Happy New Year!
My town has a day when they pick up the trees to send them to get chipped into mulch. That pretty much sets everyone’s take the tree down schedule here.
We have two of those, usually 1st and 3rd week of January. We take ours down for the 3rd week pickup. Mostly because I like enjoying the tree just a little longer.
My favorite is to make a cup of tea and just look at the tree after the kids are asleep and hubby is upstairs. It’s perfect me time.
Took mine down today, well that’s a lie, my neighbour took them down for me!?
I have ended up doing something like that the last two years. The council come and collect everyone’s trees but it’s usually around the 20th so I give a donation to a local hospice and they do the rounds to pick trees up 5th/6th so ours came down yesterday to be ready for pickup.
I love having everything up (I always decorate the first weekend in Dec) but usually do enjoy the sense of space once it’s all gone. However, this year we put the tree in the (new and much bigger) kitchen rather than the living room so with all the decor spread out it doesn’t feel so different now its gone. I miss that feeling!
I have a couple of small battery operated strings of lights and I will be keeping those out/up until the batteries die this year to fully use the batteries and because it’s still DARK.
There’s a company here in Boston that delivers trees, sets them up and then removes them to be “recycled” by goats. They came to our building yesterday for removal – in a large complex, old Christmas trees would be a fire hazard.
In my town you can drop off your tree at a certain parking lot in a popular park until the end of January. Dept. of Public Works will then take them and they will get turned into mulch.
I do January 6th. I took down my tree once before the new year and the new year was thee worst year of my life. I’m usually not superstitious but I now take the tree down January 6th ahahaha
When the universe tells you something it’s wise to listen!
I’m not particularly superstitious either, but in my family it’s always been considered bad luck to have decorations up after Epiphany (or Orthodox Christmas, as we call it.) So I usually take things down on Jan 1st-2nd.
I never figured the bad luck might work the other way: don’t take the decorations down too soon hahaha.
I absolutely cannot deal with my Christmas stuff still being around on NYE. I generally take it down between the 27-29th.
One of the nearby town’s non-profits does a Christmas Tree bonfire in January as a fundraiser for the community. It’s a fun night on the fields of a local farm, with music and food and face painting/games for kids.
They have volunteers who come around collecting trees from the neighboring towns through the first week in January, so that’s the trigger for me to take my tree down. I figure why not have it wind up there instead of a landfill, compost pile somewhere.
The rest of the decorations come down around the same time, though I usually leave 1 or 2 small strings of lights up inside, because winter is cold and dark.
As far as outdoor decorations, as long as it’s not creating light pollution all night long for your neighbors, I say leave em up or take them down as you please (I’m more bugged by the neighbors who leave their floodlights on, illuminating 10 people’s houses and yards all night every night, so you can never sit in your own backyard and enjoy the stars at night (plus for security, always on outdoor lights actually give cover to burglars, make things LESS safe)
I think that the garden and outside decorations people make in the USA are amazing!
We don’t really do that here. Maybe I should start a new trend 😉
Last year we left all our inside decorations up way too long. Like, way, way too long. I think they may have even been up during the Superbowl. This year everything was down by New Years.
I took my decorations down the day after Xmas because my house was a mess and my Xmas spirit was gone. I’m ready for summer.
Always, always on 12th Night. I’m not in America though, so maybe we’re just much more traditional?
I’m in the States and a lot of people’s Christmas traditions here are influenced by generations past. In our home, the tree was / is always put up on Christmas Eve and then taken down on Epiphany. This stemmed from my, part, German (Catholic) ancestry.
I used to keep my tree up till Epiphany, but now I tend to take it down earlier – like anytime between Boxing Day and New Year’s. Mostly I’m just tired of the clutter/disruption (I have a big ficus tree in the living room window that has to be moved for the Christmas tree), but also it’s because I’m a teacher and I have school work to do. As long as the decorations are up, I can’t focus on doing work.
I tweek mine to all red and gold, remove anything explicitly christmasy and leave them up through the lunar new year. I also leave the outside lights up until then. They aren’t specifically christmas themed. Just lights. It is gloomy here in winter and the lights/decorations make it better.
I love this, what a great way to get through the gloomy months and be all set for lunar new year.
I visited Sweden some years ago and our friends explained that people just keep the lights up because everyone needs it. I totally get that.
Heh–some of my neighbors (here in the United States) use the Winter Solstice as a reason to keep white lights up outside till March or so. Understandable–it makes the street more cheerful, especially given the early darkness.
Usually around the 6th. Sometimes longer, as it’s an artificial tree and I enjoy it. That’s for the outside lights too.
My front door has vines around it (originally dead vines but now some live ones too) and because I’m a little extra, I have ornaments on it.
I used to just leave twig balls, wooden birds, pinecones, etc. up all year but I love the Suessian look so much that a few years ago I decided to wait until Easter to take the ornaments off, and then I decided to leave all of the non glittery ones up all year! Everyone loves it! But especially me.
I take everything down before the new year so the new year starts fresh. Don’t bring anything from the previous year into the new year.
I grew up with a midwestern Catholic mother who said the tree could not be taken down until the three kings arrived (6 Jan). We purchased it later than most — closer to Christmas — to emphasise the religious aspect of the holiday and “own” everyone else. No, I don’t know how to explain this. Christmas morning started by singing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus while parading a birthday cake and the baby Jesus nativity figurine around the house. (He could not be placed in the manger until Christmas Day, don’t you know, and the three wise men had to stay on the piano until 6 Jan.)
As a recovering Catholic I just love your comment Ocho. Your Christmases must have been a laugh riot, with ornaments and such parading through the house! The three kings hanging out on the piano, waiting their turn, is hilarious! First good laugh of the New Year for me…thanks.
I mean, the only real answer here is “whenever you want,” especially when it comes to indoor decorations.
Agree with this take. As a shift worker, it’s usually when the day off/energy/weather are in perfect alignment, so for me that was yesterday. I try to have everything down within a couple of days of New Years on either side, but I don’t have a set date.
During the pandemic when we were all on lockdown, my neighbourhood kept our outdoor lights up for the whole year and there was something really beautiful and hopeful about all that light shining brightly to push back the darkness and unite us.
I paid $115 for my tree this year and I vowed to get my money’s worth out of it. I’m trying to stretch it for another week or so so I can say I had it up for two months lol.
January 13 – 20 days after Christmas Eve, it has been the rule In Sweden for the last 100 years or so…
I think it is a good rule to have. You can take it down earlier.. But not later!!
I keep my decorations up through the Epiphany. I would never think of taking them down before January 6th! I once had a neighbor that kept their outdoor decorations up until July! We’re not talking just outdoor string lights, but window decorations, Santa and reindeer yard decorations, etc.
It varies but this year was Jan 3 because my child was going back to school Jan 4 and it felt better to have Christmas over. Plus our (real) tree was DRY – even with water at base. I also was off from work so had the time to de-Christmas.
All (live) poinsettias gone from client’s lobby properties Jan 1 (I don’t mind working on New Years’ Day. Less traffic, no one in the buildings, etc) so when tenants return to work they have a fresh start. The other decorations are their business.
In my home, the tree is down and décor is still slowly coming down. Packing it up can be challenging. Last year everything fit into 2 Rubbermaid bins. No new or added décor this year, so how come I can’t fit it all back into 2 and need a third? These kinds of conundrums confound me!
Because it can be very grey in daytime, and night comes around 4:30, I leave the string of lights up outside. They cheer me up. The indoor star lights, the angel light, etc are all coming down this weekend because I noticed last night I didn’t bother plugging them in, so obvs I’m done w/them. Except for one string of stars which oddly I enjoy and have even plugged them in during summer evenings instead of turning on ceiling lights and/or floor lamps or table lamps. They’re just a softer, kinder kind of light. Everything explicitly Christmas will be gone by the end of the weekend (except the star lights on one wall cause they cheer me up). It takes me a week to be sure I’ve captured everything from earrings, necklaces and headbands to the little nativity scene under a tree outside, getting all the placemats, napkins washed, all the pillows, Christmas blankets (the dog has 3) etc cleaned before being packed away. Putting up takes about 2 days. Taking down, cleaning and packing away takes about 2 weeks. Again, confounded!
Growing up it was the 12th night so Jan 6th. Nothing religious involved just that it was the 12th night. Our tree also never went up more than a week before Christmas and I still live by that timeline. 2 weeks or so is more than enough time for all that tat!
I have an artificial tree, so I have more leeway with putting it up and down. I purchased this tree a few years ago, and it has led lights that can be white or multicolored. I can also set the lights to fade through all the colors, which I really enjoy. This year, I left town for a week right after Christmas, so it’s still up. I’ll take it down today or tomorrow.
Tip for those who have a real tree: My husband places a clean plastic milk container discreetly behind the tree, and feeds a rubber tube from the jug to the tree’s water bowl, so the watering is continuous — it’s also easier to replenish the milk container than the bowl. It keeps our 2 real trees really fresh.
I will reluctantly take our decorations down Sunday … my dad always emphasized that Christmas was a season, not a day, and wrote us a beautiful letter about this that I framed after he died, so I try to honor the 12 days.
Leave your inside decor up as long as you like.
IMO, get the decorations out of the yards ASAP.
Those deflated giant Xmas decs look like garbage bags on the lawns.
my neighbors yard faces my living room window.
Been looking at the Xmas decor since early Nov. Take it down any time now, please.
Mine stays up until Three Kings Day for sure, and depending on how dreary the weather is, may stay up for longer. We get a lot of sleet, freezing rain, and ice storms in winter, but not a lot of pretty snow, and if it’s a particularly bad winter it might stay up until February just to give us something cheery to look at!
As soon as possible when there is enough energy to do it. I started yesterday and should be done today. One year, a long time ago, the energy came on March 21st. I thought spring was really the final limit. lol I was so tired and yup, straight up lazy!!!!
Always down on Ephiphany/after 12 days. So this weekend everything comes down. Were expecting a snowstorm in the Northeast so we will be indoors anyway.
I have a question and am far too invested in hearing everyone’s opinions.
So one of my favorite holiday decorations is the outside stuff.
I get some greenery, pinecones and red berries for my window box and mailbox post. I also have a little planter on my steps with the same assortment.
Are these considered holiday decor…or just winter?? I take down my wreaths, and the red bows etc after Christmas. But I always want to leave these up through winter. In other seasons, there are fresh flowers in these spots. We are in New England, so I can’t plant flowers until spring. And leaving these planters empty from January – April just seems so sad and depressing.
Obviously, I know I can and should do whatever I want. But I am really curious as to whether other people see this as “that lady hasn’t taken down her xmas stuff yet and it’s February” or if people just see them as the winter equivalent to flowers
I leave the pine and berry decorations around my outside lights and in the planter outside until the end of January or so because I consider it winter decor and not just Christmas. This year, the planter has a “Let it Snow” theme so it doesn’t look overly Christmassy anyway.
Thank you, Turtledove and Pinkosaurus! I was wondering this myself. I have a couple of metal plant holders shaped like trucks on my porch. In the summer, they hold plants. This Xmas, I decided to put greenery, berries, and white pine cones in them–along with a wreath on the door and a huge hanging ornament on the porch roof. I was debating hauling the truck stuff in, but there’s nothing to fill them until spring–and they look depressingly bare. Am taking wreath and ornament down, but leaving the greenery, etc…
Me personally, I think inflatables should go ASAP, mainly because I don’t love inflatables at my own house. I think stuff like lights, lit-up reindeer, sleighs, etc could also be put away pretty soon. But the decor you’re talking about sounds nice!
I say this and my next door neighbor has plastic jack o lanterns out with her Christmas stuff. Last year she left her halloween wreath up until LITERALLY the next fall. She leaves her christmas stuff out till after easter. I don’t understand!
See, your neighbors with the xmas stuff that stays out until Easter? That is what I worry about, I don’t want my front yard to look like I just couldn’t be bothered to clean it up post-Holiday.
I suppose the real point for me is, I go to the local garden center and purchase this stuff and put it out to make things look PRETTIER. And I really do love it. It makes me smile every time I come home during the holidays. But then the holidays pass, and I am reluctant to give it up so quickly. But if the point is to make things look nice, then I don’t want it to give the impression of being just leftover holiday stuff that I couldn’t be bothered to pick up.
I think keeping it until the end of January is a good balance.
Been wanting to take it down for a few days now but couldn’t resolve myself to do it, I wanted to enjoy the holiday season a little bit more. But i’m taking it down tomorrow so that I kick myself for the new year and giong back to work
With artificial trees, it’s possible to keep them up for as long as one likes. Real trees will let you know when. We have a real tree, and try to keep it up until after New Years, so we try not to have it set up too soon before Christmas. It’s nice to ring in the new year with a festive tree. Outdoor trees with lights are lovely to look at all winter. One of my neighbours with a an enormous fir tree puts Christmas lights on it before the snow flies and takes them down in the spring. It has to be done by professionals since it needs a cherry picker to reach the top branches.
I like to take the very Christmassy items down right after New Years. (stockings, wreaths, bannister garlands, outdoor bows etc. ) The other decorations get morphed into “winter decorations” since it is still nice to have the lights during the dark winter. We have an artificial tree this year so the decorations are coming off this weekend but I will leave the tree with just the lights up till Valentines. Then it will be put away.
In Denver Colorado it is traditional to keep decorations up until after the end of the National Western Stock Show in late January
I’m in the Denver area and Arhus you are correct. It is a tradition to signify a “welcome” to those participating in the stock show.
However, I try to get my stuff down on 12/26. We put our stuff up the weekend after Thanksgiving and that includes a real tree ever since our artificial stopped looking nice. Plus my husband’s bday is right after Christmas and I like him to have his day to himself. However, the lights on the house are still up because cant get them down myself and he’s been too busy to get to them.
Mine stay up until January 6th or anytime after that. This is only time of year I’m confident in my decorating so there’s a lot to take down and I take my time. While I don’t have outside lights up, my theory is clear lights can stay up all winter if someone wants to. It’s cold, it’s dark. Show me some light.
If I was going to have decor/a tree, I’d keep the Russian practice of Jan 14th for “Old New Year”. The two week later period you’d see for Orthodox holidays and delay when switching from Julian to Gregorian calendars.
Mine go up after my wedding anniversary, which is 10 days before Christmas and usually are down before New Years. This year they made it to Jan 1.
I am not a Christmas person, so the least amount of time they are around, the better.
The first lazy Sunday a week after New Year’s.
After I married I accepted my husband’s family tradition. All holiday decorations put away by January 1.